Vista users beware

Designed for church personnel, this complex program offers the tools to help you create and manage church schedules. Because of the various events, people, and other things it tracks, setup may take some time, and less experienced users might be overwhelmed by the program's busy interface. We also found some problems for those running Vista on their computers.

The program's main interface is busy and little has been done to dress up this database-driven program. On first run, a menu gives you the option of creating a new file with or without the help of a wizard. Some testers using Vista reported that the wizard didn't appear for them regardless of which method was chosen. They also received a pop-up window that revealed that the Help feature isn't supported by Vista. For a simpler program, that might be fine, but SmartRoster involves setting up four main areas to come up with the desired roster: People, Schedules, Events, and Roles. Without guidance, less experienced users could be overwhelmed with the setup. For those on other operating systems, the wizard and Help file make the process easier, but it will still take time to get all of the necessary information added to make an accurate roster. For example, there are seven tabs for the various types of data you can capture for a single individual in the People section. Information ranges from contact details like address and phone to specifying a person's roles in the church.

You have 30 days to give SmartRoster a try, and while this is the standard trial period, those new to scheduling programs might not find this to be enough time to fully get the hang of this app. We recommend this program for those who have experience working with database programs and are willing to put in the time getting it set up.